Today in History

The Mexican criminal syndicate Los Zetas kills 72 illegal immigrants from Central and South America in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

Pluto is downgraded to a dwarf planet when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines “planet.”

Chechnyan suicide bombers blow up two airliners near Moscow, killing 89 passengers.

Alexandre Coste, son of Albert II, Prince of Monaco, and former air stewardess Nicole Coste.

Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) create initial accord regarding partial self-rule for Palestinians living on the West Bank, the Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities.

Hurricane Andrew makes landfall in Florida. The Category 5 storm, which had already caused extensive damage in the Bahamas, caused $26.5 billion in US damages, caused 65 deaths, and felled 70,000 acres of trees in the Everglades.

Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; Ukraine declares its independence from USSR.

Baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti bans Pete Rose from baseball for gambling.

 Mark David Chapman sentenced to 20 years to life for murdering former Beatles band member John Lennon.

The principal leaders of Greece’s 1967 coup—Georgios Papadopoulos, Stylianos Pattakos, and Nikolaos Maarezos—sentenced to death for high treason, later commuted to life in prison.

Grey DeLisle-Griffin, voice-over actress in animated TV shows (The Fairly OddParents) and video games (Diablo III).

Reginald “Reggie” Miller, professional basketball player who set record for most career 3-point field goals (later superseded by Ray Allen); Olympic gold medalist.

Hideo Kojima, creator and director of video games (Metal Gear series).

Calvin “Cal” Ripken, Jr., shortstop and third baseman for Baltimore Orioles (1981–2001) who broke Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played.

Congress outlaws the Communist Party in the United States.

Oscar Hijuelos, novelist (The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love).

Edith Mae Irby becomes the first African-American student to attend the University of Arkansas.

In the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the third carrier-versus-carrier battle of the war, U.S. naval forces defeat a Japanese force attempting to screen reinforcements for the Guadalcanal fighting.

Yasir Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Liberation Movement.

Alice H.B. Sheldon, science fiction writer and artist, CIA photo-intelligence operative, lecturer at American University and major in the U.S. Army Air Force.

By an act of Congress, Alaska is given a territorial legislature of two houses.

Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, blues singer, a major influence on Elvis Presley.

Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (Ficciones).

Malcolm Cowley, poet, translator, literary critic and social historian.

Thomas Brooks is shot and killed by an unknown assailant beginning a six year feud with the McFarland family.

Richard Cushing, the director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

Congress passes the first graduated income tax law, which is declared unconstitutional the next year.

Thomas Edison files a patent for the motion picture camera.

Jean Rhys, writer (Wide Sargasso Sea).

Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York, patents the waffle iron.

Charlotte Bronte, using the pseudonym Currer Bell, sends a manuscript of Jane Eyre to her publisher in London.

British troops under General Robert Ross capture Washington, D.C., which they set on fire in retaliation for the American burning of the parliament building in York (Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada.

Theodore Parker, anti-slavery movement leader.

King Louis XVI abolishes torture as a means to get suspects to confess.

Some 50,000 people are put to death in the ‘Massacre of St. Bartholomew’ as Charles IX of France attempts to rid the country of Huguenots.

In South America, Gonzalo Pizarro returns to the mouth of the Amazon River after having sailed the length of the great river as far as the Andes Mountains.

German barbarians sack Rome.

Mount Vesuvius erupts destroying Pompeii, Stabiae, Herculaneum and other smaller settlements.